Push 'em Back Farther Is New Nu Football Play

Students Protest Change In Dyche Stadium Seating

For years, Northwestern University students competed for the best seats in the house--but at the library, never at Dyche Stadium.

That is what decades of losing football will do for a university.

Now, after NU's first trip to the Rose Bowl in 47 years, all of that has changed. No more Saturday afternoons with 25,000 or more empty seats.

Standing room only--words never uttered at Northwestern--was common last season, and each of the approximately 50,000 uncomfortable wooden seats at Dyche suddenly skyrocketed in value.

The university has decided to push its student seating deeper into the end zone and farther away from the field--a move that has touched off the kind of protest not often seen at a school known for its mild-mannered ways on the football field and in the arena of student activism.

The new policy isn't winning the cheers of students, who, athletic department officials say, are being moved in large measure because they tend to stand, rather than sit, during games, blocking the sightlines of the paying public.

Close to 2,000 students have signed petitions objecting to the plan, and, on a dreary Thursday afternoon, approximately three dozen of them marched to the office of NU President Henry S. Bienen to register their displeasure.

"They've taken their success and kind of run away with it," said Michael Harwin, a sophomore psychology student who helped organize Thursday's protest.

"It's really annoying. They don't realize students make up the school."

That seating at Dyche is a center of controversy on the Evanston campus shows just how far the football team has progressed. The new football success, it seems, has bred a new set of problems, even if they do seem to depend on uncertain assumptions about future football success.

When they were losers, the Wildcats allowed students into games free. Back then, the fans bothered by the kids who say it is a tradition to stand for a whole contest could easily move to other seats.

Student seating began on the 30-yard line and went into the end zone. Ten percent of Dyche Stadium--about 5,000 seats--was reserved for the student body.

Last year, the school began to charge students $20 for a season ticket, or $5 a game if they bought them individually, said Rick Taylor, the athletic director.

This year, the school has decided to move student seating to about the 20-yard line. According to officials, less than 2,000 students will be affected by the change.

Taylor and Bienen insist that the seating move does not reflect some new disregard for the students or a greater hunger for football money, as students have charged.

"The students think that they have an inalienable right to stand," said Taylor. "You stand when something great happens, but then you should sit down. They refuse."

Indeed they do. According to Brady Mitchell, a freshman, sitting during a game would be a betrayal of sorts, both to the football squad and to tradition.

"It's an injustice to the students of this university that they're going to let this success influence their policies," he said. "It's just wrong."

Officials say NU students are treated well compared with other Big Ten schools and football powerhouses. At Notre Dame, where football is almost a religion, students pay $96 for a season ticket, although their roughly 10,000 seats begin at the 45-yard line.

University of Michigan students pay $85 for a season pass and, like their counterparts at Notre Dame, stand for extended periods, according to officials.

But neither school has plans to ask their students to sit down during the games, in large part because student seating runs to the top rows of the stadiums.

The University of Illinois has experienced some of the problems as Northwestern during its winning seasons, but its 76,000-seat Memorial Stadium rarely sells out, allowing for room to move, said ticket manager Jerry Bennett.

Bienen called on students Thursday to help him come up with a solution--something he said they had failed so far to do.

Whether students will take Bienen up on his offer is unclear. Many say they are ready for a fight and seem to relish one, even if it is over Dyche Stadium.